Cobalt announced as MacRobert Award finalist

Submitted by admin on Mon, 28/04/2014 - 09:00

Cobalt Light Systems has been shortlisted as one of three finalists for the MacRobert Award, presented by the Royal Academy of Engineering, and widely regarded as the UK’s premier engineering prize. Previous winners include Rolls Royce for the Trent Aero Engine and recently Jaguar Land Rover for the Range Rover Evoque. The nomination is for Cobalt’s cutting-edge technology for analysing the composition of chemicals sealed within non-metallic containers, without opening them, in just a few seconds. The patented technology, known as SORS (Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy) was first pioneered at the Science and Technology Facility Council Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and was first applied by Cobalt to verifying pharmaceutical tablets and capsules. The company has now applied it to a security machine, the Insight100, to screen sealed bottles for liquid explosives at airports. The Insight100 will contribute to lifting the existing restrictions on passengers carrying liquids in hand-luggage over the next few years, in line with EU regulations. The Insight100 has been successfully deployed in the last few months at 65 EU airports, and eight of the top ten EU airports including Heathrow and Gatwick in the UK. The winner of the MacRobert Award will be announced on 2nd July at the Royal opera House in London.